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Trantor
The Trantor was a Highspeed Tractor built in Lancashire. It was originally designed by Stuart Taylor a research student at Manchester University. They were built from 1978 till 1987 in Lancashire SeriesONE & Cheshire Series TWO] . They are no longer being built in India by HHT but there is now an Indian supply-chain which enables Trantor International Ltd to assemble the 2 & 4Wheel Drive Trantors elsewhere and the work of design UK continues but in a much higher HP range of categories from 90hp Tata engine to a 180 HP Trantor Javelin specification which is a series Three model range to 128 -135 hp and javelin range above 135hp.The Idea was to create a new concept of tractor for the transport-duties on farms & to create a low-draught focused specification which was MUCH more efficientSpeedy & with much reduced fuel consumption than the convention but also one that could be useful to most,if not all power take-off PTO work tasks.It was and still is a farm tractor that is ahead of its time & considered by many to be so!!, The much later JCB Fastrac Range of heavy tractors was a WHOLLY different product concept.The Fastrac was designed and developed to compete head to head with John Deere,Claas,Fiat & Agco farm tractors whereas the Trantor tractor was carefully designed to work ALONGSIDE the 33 million conventional tractors used each day in the new globalised world of farm machinery. The Trantor was and is able to conduct shallow-ploughing but its design was directed towards those farm duties that the conventional farm tractor was & is not efficient at doing.Whilst the Fastrac fitted in to the conventional wisdom of farmers who wished to plough & conduct heavy cultivation the Trantor tractor was primarily designed to work,much more speedily & safely, with the UK-style of farm trailers but also work more efficiently on lower draught & PTO-work tasks. Clearly the JCB experience since launching the Fastrac has been more easily accepted in the market place.The trantor tractor,however is much more a Global-market concept aimed towards moving the 7000million tonnes of crops from field to fork.It is also a concept that includes many of the desirable features of the Land-Rover/Land Cruiser pick-up truck as its weight ,safety ,speed & comfort is vehicle-related rather than tractor-related.The fastrac is NOT light in weight and is not designed to carry people farming villages in the cabin & on the load platform & tailgate.The concepts are very different to each other and both are different to the Unimog from Mercedes farming-focused designs.PDF -brochure" 3 Different Farm Tractor Concepts from the website, Trantortractors .co.uk The Trantor tractor concept has found over 500 customers in 15 countries whereas the Fastrac has been much more popular and has behind it a successful manufacturing business.The Trantor idea is reasonably well known but not so popular in the UK.,partly because its design is more relevant to a wider range of farming countries. Many manufactures now offer 40 kph & 50Kph versions of the conventional,skid-unit-focused farm tactors despite the FACT that ,in France and UK the legislation does NOT permit such speeds.Because of the design of UNIMOG,TRANTOR & FASTRAC these special & different tractors are permitted, in UK & Germany ,for example, to travel at 80KPHMPH. .In the Trantors case there are Four different suspension systems but Unimog has only two.The fastrac has a suspension arrangement that is very similar indeed to the patents taken out by W.S.H.Taylor,the originator of the fully suspended farm tractor.. ]] 2008]] History The design was conceived by Stuart Taylor and Graham Edwards who formed a firm to develop the idea in 1972. A prototype was built in 1973 and after testing and developmet the first models were built and sold in 1978. The Name was derived from the original title of "TRANsport TracTOR", which became TRANTOR .. The Trantor Series II was introduced to address some of the issues that users found with the early machines. Options of alternative engines and gearboxes, with top speed reduced to better suit field work. The machine was fitted with an airbrake system which allowed the operation of high speed trailers on the highway. The Idea was considered by many to be ahead of its time, and to have been over-taken by the JCB Fastrac Range. But the JCB was designed as ploughing tractor and Trantor is a transport and low-draught farm tractor, which is completely different concept. The JCB Fastrac uses the Trantor-style rear suspension which was the subject of two patents which the Trantor team passed to JCB ltd.....who then found a way NOT to infringe the patents. Timeline * 1972 - concept thought up by Stuart Taylor * 1973 - Prototype built * 1976 - Launched at Royal Show * 1978 - First models sold * 1983 - Series II introduced * 1986 - 4-wd prototypes built as prototypes and * 1987 - UK production stopped when many of UKs component suppliers went out of business. * 1991 - design & development work for use in all or most countries of world has since beenundertaken * 1999 - work conducted with GAJRA gears of Dewas,MP enabled the company to create its Indian Supply chain & one which began with TATA-components originally designed by Mercedes-Benz 3-prototypes were built * 2005 - A New Company - Zetor-HMT Tractors Ltd. in Pinjore, India entered into an agreement to make and sell 65 H.P.Trantors for INDIAN farmers. Serious working capital shortages have caused HMT to reduce their production volume of Zetor-HMT tractors from their break-even level of 12000 per annum to nearer to 4000. In such a climate and following government changes the Trantor tractor is more likely to be an export product for HMT who have no current export markets for there products. Model range * Trantor Series I - 1978-83 - 72 hp and 80 hp and 60 mph (50 mph legally in UK, as for the unimog. * Trantor Series II - 1983-87 - 96 hp Leyland engine in turbo-form & 126-HP Perkins 6.354. * HMT Trantor - In 2003 a 4 model range proposed for the manufacturing systems at HMT Ltd. under a licence agreement which is at prototype stage only. The supply chain is, however a success story with many Indian companies providing key parts for the export models e.g. Tata Group engines, Hino-engines, Tvs-braking systems, Pricol Instruments, HMT castings, HMT gears and transmission items & many other engineering parts made in the machine shops of Pinjore factory. HMT has 2000 people on this site * The Future (2010) - HMT Group & directors (Representing the Indian Government) are in the throes of reconstruction and a possible privatisation. The Trantor group have wished to be a key part of any re-construction of the tractor business of HMT, Pinjore ,but in partnership with a suitable Indian private sector company. In the meantime, HMT are concentrating their attention on the Domestic Indian market and Trantor (in the UK) are working on achieving Exports of the new Trantor models built in India. This seems to be a policy that can assist both companies & both countries. The new British PMs recent visit to India & his speech relating to co-operation and trade between the two countries and the growing importance of India as an exporter in the World markets supports that aim. The Competition The best known competitor in the high speed tractor market is the JCB Fastrac and the Former Mercedes-Benz Unimog tractor range. range for farmers.Other major manufactures such as Fendt, John Deere, Massey Ferguson, Valtra do NOT offer High speed versions of there tractors,because the speed limit for these ploughing-first tractors are slow,poorly-braked and do not have the four suspension systems that the 80kph Trantor has & the 65kph fastrac has because these conventional tractors are all based on a conventional tractor design which has a skid -unit rather than a chassis and so the suspension is only on the seats & on some front axles.The gearing & transmission systems of trantors & fastracs and unimogs are designed for MUCH faster,legal speeds than the conventional ploughers. Trantor tractors originated the Hi-speed tractor and did so by creating suspension systems & braking systems which use an air-compressor so that the Trantor could pull trailers on the road at speed.THIS SPEED WAS NOT REGULATED BY THE STANDARDS OF TRACTORS BUT TO THE SAME STANDARD AS TRUCKS. The unimog was also designed for safety and speed but the kind of trailers pulled in Germany are balanced wheras in UK ,Africa,France etc etc they are balanced and therefore place weight on the trailers drawbarthe trailer is loaded.The intelligent design of W.S.H.Taylor created a similar invention to that of Harry Ferguson.Whereas Harry borrowed the weight from the plough Stuat borrowed the weight of the trailer the drawbarand suspended the Hitchlinkage....of the tractor. The fastrac is known to have something very similar and was created after JCB farms bought 2 trantors,examined the Unimog & MB Trac & created a farm tractor like all others Trantor & Unimog which had the orientation of "having to be good at ploughing". The Trantor is something else and is a farm transport tractor for pulling trailer & conducting ALL low-draught farming duties at speeds in excess of the convention.....in-field & out of fields. The Trantor is unique as can be seen on the www.trantortractors.co.uk website. Preserved examples Several have been seen at steam fairs and tractor shows, mainly used to haul other exhibits. (see Photos on the Right for examples). * - A Series II At Cromford Steam Rally * - A well restored Series I at Astwood Bank Vintage show (Fullcab) * - 1984 - MkII owned by Noel Collins, in NI. (ex Water board machine) * - 1981 - MkI Photo here * add - A Series II (The Red Trantor in photo on the left) seen at Great Dorset Steam Fair 2008 & 2010 See also * HMT Indian tractor manufacturer. References * Tractor & Machinery Magazine, vol.13, no.3 External links * www.trantortractors.co.uk - Trantor Official web site * HMT Trantor HMT official web site Category:Companies of the United Kingdom Category:Trantor Category:Former tractor manufacturers Category:Tractor manufacturers Category:Inventions Category:Highspeed tractors Category:Tractors built in India Category:Tractors built in Britain